By USSA

TELLURIDE — Ski Cross USA’s John Teller of Mammoth skied his way into the semifinals in the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup at Telluride, but just missed the finals finishing seventh to lead the U.S.

Slovenian Filip Flisar won a close men’s final with Swiss Fanny Smith taking the women’s title.

It was the first U.S. World Cup stop for the skicross tour in three years.

In the semis, Teller got boxed out with a crash ahead of him – avoiding disaster but falling back and finishing third, missing the finals.

“I had a terrible start on my first run. I don’t know if I was awake yet,” Teller said. “In the semi I was trying to avoid traffic and had a big crash in front of me.”